Mr. P's Bistro — Restaurant in Southport

I was looking for something to celebrate my birthday with my wife, and Mr.P’s looked promising.

Ambience: We were greeted and seated promptly, and our waitress was right there. A friend said they thought it was a bit dark and didn’t like the ambience. I loved it - perfect for a lovely dinner.

Service: Excellent. Our waitress (Teniel?) was friendly, knowledgeable, and did a great job of breaking up all the choices into manageable chunks. Attentive to our needs, but not intrusive. Helpful when I asked specific food questions and clearly knew the menu.

Food: Excellent. Great choices on the main menu and we chose from the specials. We started with oysters, and they were just right to start with. Nice sea salt flavor with a very nice mignonette. I added the special oyster with crème fresh and caviar - oh boy, that’s a new favorite!

I followed that with duck, collard greens and roasted new potatoes. Everything was perfection and the flavors melded well. The duck had been deboned and you get breast, thigh and leg meat. Collards we’re up there, but the roasted potatoes get a special mention. I hate horseradish, but the waitress said it turned sweet through the roasting process. I was dubious, but they were delicious - another new thing to try!

My wife went with the main menu goats cheese salad coupled with soft shell crab. It was a brilliant idea, and I could see me doing it in future. Her food was also wonderful, with amazing crab and fried cheese balls. We both cleaned our plates.

Desserts are made in house and the selection was perfect for me. I had the crème brûlée and it was one of my best ever.

Drinks: Coffees were fresh, hot and tasty. My wife really enjoyed her lemon drop martinis. Water glasses never got near empty.

Value: I expected to pay for the quality and service, but it really was reasonable. Take off the alcohol and coffee and it seems fair to me.

I will be returning because we had a great evening. Highly...

We’ve heard raves about the prime rib here, so fussy British hubby got that and fried shrimp. I got a French dip made with the prime rib. The Angus beef lived up to its name in terms of tenderness and fat content…BUT both of us felt as if we were chewing on a tall glass of water, for all the flavor it contained. Only afterwards did we realize there was a reason the waitress offered to have the beef blackened. At least then it would have had some type of flavor. *Here I will note Covid taste loss can play a part in this experience. It’s a different world now and some chefs have upped their game in response. Have the wait staff inform guests of subtle flavors and suggest blackened meat for more robust flavor. * As for the rest, my Londoner thought the shrimp was just passable, but gave high marks for the salad ingredients being fresh. He thought my fries were the better sort of frozen restaurant-quality product. Taking one star off for service because the waitress could have dropped off our check before taking orders from her large group, or give it to someone else to deliver. We waited an uncomfortable amount of time at our cleared table. Another organizational note, you need a reservation for this restaurant. We’ve been turned away at 4:30 in the past, so this time we had our reservation but the couple in front of us didn’t. They were turned away at first but a waitress suggested a tiny table for 2 right next to the door. I only mention this because the place was barely 1/3 full the entire hour we were there. It just seems like an odd choice...

This review isn’t based on the food which is excellent...but the absurd experience I had this past weekend. Ordered the mixed grill. I barely ate half of the entree...just full from appetizers, salad, etc. My plate was picked up to be boxed in the back. While others got their boxes mine did not come. Finally server came out and said someone “dropped my food on the floor” so they had to remake. That was fine as accidents happen. However, when they did bring my supposed leftovers, there was absolutely no fish ( I had half a filet of Mahi I hadn’t eaten) and there was an uncooked cold/frozen crab cake. I asked the server why my crab cake was LITERALLY uncooked and frozen and her response was the kitchen staff figured I could cook it myself since I was taking it home anyways. As if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, when I asked why my fish wasn’t replaced... the response was that the Chef “doesn’t cook half fillets”. Keep in mind, THEY are the ones who dropped ALL my food. I reminded the server this was the staffs fault to begin with and that I found it somewhat dishonest that she didn’t even disclose to me that my fish wouldn’t be remade and just hoped I wouldn’t notice. The manager never even came over to apologize which also baffled me. Fish was eventually made for me and frozen crab cake cooked...although just too little too late. I never leave bad reviews but I’m hoping that this will help the restaurant owners/managers understand that this kind of customer experience is unacceptable and the worst...